About Cindy

Married, Female, Empty Nester Love to garden, cook, read.

Thinking in threes

Before I explain the title of this post, maybe I should precede it with telling you that I do not believe in ghosts.

And, I should probably also tell you that I’m not crazy, either, (at least not any crazier than the average Joe).

But, right now, I’m thinking in threes.

To tell you why, I need to go back a few years. Shortly after my brother, Dennis, died in 2004, I tried my hand at communicating with him in the “afterlife.” It happened quite by accident. One day, while driving to Charleston to run a few errands, I was thinking about him and called out his name several times while driving down Highway 176. I was wondering if he could hear me, and so I asked him out loud if he could. “Do you know I’m thinking about you and miss you, today,” I asked? “Give me a sign, brother, to let me know you can hear me, please.” I wondered how he would indeed give me a signal if he could and started thinking that maybe he would come to me in the form of a deer in the field along the side of the road or a hawk overhead or something. I thought it would be cool to get a message, but really didn’t think that I would. I got the whole way into town and got a little teary eyed a few times, but I never received a sign.  On my way home, long after I had given up on seeing a sign, a big old ugly turkey buzzard flew right in front of the car! Oh, yes, that would be Dennis: not a graceful hawk or a beautiful deer, but the lowly turkey buzzard! When I got home, I relayed the story to Brian and we agreed that it would do no harm and actually be a lovely thought to believe it was a sign from Dennis.

The second time I received a message from Dennis was not too long after that first incident. I was working part-time as a newspaper reporter and was working late one night with my boss doing page layout for the upcoming issue. My boss called me into her office as she was instant messaging her friend in Utah to ask me what my recently deceased brother looked like. Her friend had just gotten a vision while messaging my boss of a guy in jeans, boots, denim jacket, ball cap and she didn’t recognize him. He was holding three yellow roses, did either of us know who he might be? Well, the outfit sounded like my brother and, yes, the yellow roses were significant, too as they were my mothers favorite.

A third incident occurred several years ago when my sisters were visiting. We had spent the day in Charleston and Folly Beach, acting like tourists, but also visiting a few of my brother’s hangouts. We even stepped in to the Sand Dollar, the bar on Folly Island, where he died. As we were on our way home and talking about him and I was relaying my two paranormal incidents to them, a buzzard flew right in front of the car. Yep, it was almost in exactly the same place where I had seen the other buzzard months earlier.

So, the other day I went to Charleston to do some shopping at the Pet Smart. And, as I usually do, when I got to “that place” on Highway 176, I yelled out to my brother. I said, “Hey, Dennis, How are you doing? Can you hear me? Can you do something to give me a sign? How’s Mom and Dad? Can they hear me? Why don’t you all get together and summon up all your energies and give me a sign? One sign from each of you? Something in threes? Yes, like three hawks or three deer or even a set of triplets at the pet store, I know you can do it.”

And, I concentrated hard the rest of the trip there and back. I’ve been concentrating on it for days, but so far, nothing. 

So, I’ve been thinking about why I am even doing this thing. It seems silly in a way. But, I wonder, if maybe, when a person first dies, his spirit hangs around for a little while.  I mean, if the spirit is a living thing, it just lost its house! So, maybe it takes a little while – a few days, or weeks, or months, or even longer, to leave the in-between place of this world and move on to the next.  

Maybe that is a crazy notion and the only reason a person sees signs is because he looks until he finds them. Purely coincidental. Or, maybe, it’s not so crazy, but my brother’s spirit is finally too far away now to hear me. Or maybe, I just need to concentrate a little harder.

What do you think?

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For the love of Sam Dog

An update on Sam Dog, you ask? Sure! My life certainly revolves around him so why not share the love?

As most of you know, Sam, is our pit bull mix rescue dog that came to us about six months ago. We really struggled with whether or not we should keep him, knowing the responsibility attached to such a decision. And, you all know that we did, indeed, bring him into the family fold.

This morning I went to town (that means Charleston) to buy Sam some new toys at Pet Smart. I couldn’t wait any longer to make this trip as he is out of toys! If any of you out there in cyber space have a big pit bull mixed breed dog that suffers from separation anxiety, you know what I mean!  Being out of dog toys at my house is very dangerous!

Since Sam can destroy most “indestructible” toys in a matter of minutes, I had spent hours on Pet Smart’s website reading customer reviews of the different products, ruled out the majority of them and made a list of only the ones that customers said their toy destroyer dogs could not destroy!

I bought a container of snacks and squeeze cheese to stuff the stuffable toys with treats. Supposedly, this can keep him occupied for hours. I also bought a container of bitter grapefruit spray to spray on every piece of furniture in my house!

I spent $158.00 on this handful of "indestructible" toys. Tink, our boy tabby looks on, agog at everything we bought for Sam!

I spent $158.00 on this handful of "indestructible" toys. Tink, our boy tabby looks on, agog at everything we bought for Sam!

I should tell you that Sam is, mostly, a sweetheart when we are at home. We do often have to scold him for tormenting the cats. And he wakes us up several times each night ,whether it is when he is climbing in and out of our bed or when he barks cause he hears his girlfriend, Princess, (the neighbor’s new rescue spaniel) escaping from her enclosure.

Except for that, and destroying our house and costing us a fortune at the vet and pet store, he is a good dog!

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Hooray, it’s oyster roasting season

Brian and I went to Charleston on Saturday to get me a crab pot as an early birthday present. I know a crab pot is not a common gift choice, but it is exactly what I wanted and since crabbing is really good now, I certainly could not wait the few more weeks till my birthday to get it.

Making a trip to Charleston is always a big deal to me; I call it, “going to town.” I was certainly excited to be going to Boater’s World, a very cool boating store with lots and lots of neat boating gear, in addition to a nice selection of crab traps.  But, when we got there, it wasn’t there! So, then we went to West Marine, where there were no crab pots and very little other cool boating stuff. But, it did have a friendly clerk that sent us to Ace Hardware, where there were quite a few crab pots to choose from! So, yep, I got one and am planning a crabbing expedition next weekend.

On the way home, we stopped at our favorite fishmonger’s and got a 40 pound sack of oysters – just enough for the two of us! (By the way, the woman equivalent of a fishmonger is called a fishwife.)

It’s official: oyster roasting season is here. Yay!

A turkey fryer can be used for so much more than frying turkeys.

A turkey fryer can be used for so much more than frying turkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooking a few potatoes and a couple of ears of corn, since 40 pounds of oysters will not be enough.

Cooking a few potatoes and a couple of ears of corn, since 40 pounds of oysters will not be enough.

Steam 'em just till the shells pop.

Steam 'em just till the shells pop.

First batch is done.

First batch is done.

Yum.

Yum.

                                                                                                                                                                  FYI, oysters are one of the most nutritionally well balanced of foods, containing protein, carbohydrates and lipids and are ideal for low-cholesterol diets. They are an excellent source of vitamins A, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), C (ascorbic acid) and D (calciferol). Four or five of these yummy bivalves supply the recommended daily allowance of iron, copper, iodine, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese and phosphorus.

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